


Scary Movies and Saturdays

by TheSubtextMachine



Series: My Sylena Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Descriptions of a dumb horror movie, F/F, Fluff, Gays at a movie theatre!!!, very cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 14:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13719837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSubtextMachine/pseuds/TheSubtextMachine
Summary: "Syd and Elena being all cute and fluffy whilst going out on a date together to see a horror movie?"Prompt from rosawright. Basically what the prompt says!





	Scary Movies and Saturdays

The sun is setting outside as Syd and Elena walk, fingers entwined, into the cavernous movie theatre. It’s the kind of aimless Saturday night in February that warrants a trip to the movies, and it’s the perfect date night for the two.

"So, do you _promise_ that you’ll comfort me during the scary parts?" Syd asks, leaning into Elena with a dopey smile as they walk through the doors. 

"Of course! I’m no heathen," Elena leans back, giggling a bit. She feels like a complete and utter teenager, giggling with her girlfriend (girlfriend! Her heart still jumps at the thought) and being carefree as they get in line to buy popcorn. They’ve got candy in Syd's bag, and soda in Elena's, so all they need is a medium popcorn to share. It’s an off night, with no openings or major releases, so the line is thankfully short. 

Elena's pulling up the tickets on her phone, Syd holding the popcorn with great care, when she is struck with a realization. 

"Wait, Carmen used to work here, right? I could’ve gotten a friends and family discount!"

"Does it work with former employees?" Syd asks, smiling at the guy who scans at Elena's phone since she's too caught up in her train of thought to even think about it. They head to their theatre, and fall back in step with each other.

"I don’t know. Carmen was a very treasured employee, though, so maybe she would be," Elena says, and her eyes catch on an interesting-looking poster as they walk down the carpeted hall.

"Was she? I’ve FaceTimed with her and she doesn’t really seem like the customer service type," says Syd, picking out a small piece of popcorn.

"You’d think! But I saw her in action, once, and it was crazy."

"Was it like Wednesday in Addams Family Values? In the beginning of the play scene? That’s the image coming to my head," Syd opens the door for Elena, who begins laughing lightly.

"That’s it! Oh my god, I think Carmen is just Wednesday with a bob!" 

They’ve got a seat in the back, and after a climb up the stairs, they get settled in the rickety seats.

Their movie is low-quality horror, with a frighteningly low Rotten Tomatoes score and a basically empty theatre. There’s only one other person in there, and she’s in the middle of the theater and on the verge of falling asleep by the commercials alone. 

Syd pulls out the candy, and splits it up among them (Elena prefers more chocolaty candy, while Syd is a lover of the sour), and Elena follows by reaching into her messenger bag for their sodas, smoothly as if it were all choreographed. She unscrews the plastic cap of her bottle, and holds it up for a toast.

"To scary movies and Saturdays."

"Amen," replies Syd, and they clink their plastic bottles together before having a swig of the soda in sync. They lean back into their chairs, and Elena pulls up the cup holder between them and puts the popcorn in its place.

"So, what have you heard about this movie?" Syd asks.

"Other than it being bad? Not much. Also, there’s going to be a lot of shaky cam."

"That may be the scariest part about the whole thing," jokes Syd, and the lights go down before Elena can come up with another joke, so they both just turn their attention to the big screen.

There's the customary set of commercials, before the movie starts. It begins with, as predicted, shaky cam, as a 30 year old actor playing a teenager runs through the woods, looking over their shoulder in fear, before the camera pans away, and screams are heard. Elena is holding back a heckle, and turns to see that Syd has their lips shut tight, trying to keep from laughing.

"So scary already, do you think you can handle it?" Elena whispers as the title card comes up on the screen.

"With you by my side? I can handle anything," they answer, and as jokey as it should be, it comes out sincerely, and Elena is struck with such a strong jolt of affection that it takes her breath away.

"Even this very, very scary movie?" she asks, a bit breathlessly.

"I think so," says Syd, and they smile widely, before the pair leans into each other, kissing softly and sweetly, smiling in a way that kinda-sorta gets in the way of the kissing. It’s so unbelievably nice that Elena isn’t totally surprised when they are shocked apart by a very loud, very high pitched scream, because the universe is like that sometimes.

They look back to the screen, light blushes dusting their cheekbones, and watch on as a blond lady gets stabbed by a masked man. Morbid curiosity about the scene takes over, as the score begins to ascend into weirdness, with guitar riffs paired with what might be a flute?

"I think this might be genius," whispers Elena as they watch the scene, transfixed by the way that it gets weirder and weirder. The score reaches its climax, the stabbed girl holds her punctured stomach as if that would do anything at all to help the situation, and the blood runs syrupy and light red. 

"Am I hallucinating right now? Is there something in my soda?" whispers back Syd, who shoves a full handful of popcorn in their mouth for emphasis.

"I’m seeing this all too."

"Why is it still going on? This scene is so long and nothing new is happening?"

"Wait, why is he leaving? Is he going to take anything? What is happening?"

"When is this scene going to end? It’s just her rolling in her own blood. Where can the story possibly go from here?"

"Downhill."

This causes Syd to break out into giggles, which Elena promptly follows. This lasts until the scene miraculously ends, and cuts to one of the lady's friends, having a conversation with some new character. Their attention fades as a result of the bad writing and bad acting, and they turn back to each other.

"So, do you have a favorite character?" Syd asks, trying to quietly open a package of Sour Patch Kids and failing.

"The knife, probably."

"I don’t know, the lamp definitely has some good lines. So much charisma."

"That’s true. Both of them are just so complex, so it’s definitely hard to choose," Elena says, her body completely oriented to her girlfriend, not sparing a look to the screen.

"It’s just such an interesting movie! I love the metaphors about the patriarchy. The lamp's monologue about subjugation really got to me," says Syd, trying to speak through laughter.

"If this movie doesn’t get every Oscar, I'm organizing a walkout."

"I’ll run the social media campaign, you hit the streets. We'll make it happen."

The scene on the screen changes to something else in a forest, but the couple in the back couldn’t care less. The scenes change, and apart from some moments of attention (usually when the half-hearted gore happened), they usually just paid attention to each other and their winding conversation. By the credits of the movie, they have a bucket of half-finished popcorn on the floor and a bunch of candy wrappers. They pack up their stuff, and make their way out. They dump the wrappers and empty soda bottles outside the door, and get outside.

It’s nighttime, and the stars are out. Some smoky grey clouds run along the sky, but the bright white dots still shine through. Syd knocks their shoulder against Elena, ducking their head as they smile.

"Wanna wish on a star?" Syd asks, hands shoved into overall pockets. Elena feels flutters in her stomach, and copies Syd, looking down.

"Sure."

"What do you wish for?"

"Well, I already got my wish, so…" Elena answers awkwardly, tilting her head up to the stars as Syd stops in their tracks. Elena's only a few steps ahead when this is clear, and she swivels around to face her.

"You’re such a nerd!" Syd exclaims, eyes wide and smile gleaming. Elena feels love so strongly in that moment, looking at her grinning girlfriend, tinged pearly white under the starlight. 

"As long as I’m your nerd, I think I’ll be okay," says Elena, and she thinks that this moment is the smoothest she’s ever been. 

"Come here and kiss me, _nerd_."

And then, for once in her life, Elena doesn’t rebel against a request.

**Author's Note:**

> This was fun to write! Hit me up with prompts on my tumblr @thesubtextmachine, and I’ll do what I can! Thanks for reading, and I would love to see comments of what y’all thought!


End file.
